Check out this Volkswagen Touareg 3.0 TDI in central Beijing in 2014. The big SUV has a wild body kit and green headlight lenses. It also has darkened windows, side steps, and strangely wide wheels.
The body kit includes new bumpers and a faux power bulge on the hood. It looks like a typical China-made kit from the early 2000s. Fuzzily, I found a similar kit on eBay, offered in the UK.
The Volkswagen Touareg King Kong Crew Member Edition was a special edition launched in 2005 to celebrate the 2005 King Kong movie. Volkswagen was involved in this flick, supplying Toureg SUVs for the crew, hence the name. It had cool badges on the B-pillar and a DVD player for the second row, see more photos here. However, the special edition was based on the pre-facelift version of the Touareg, whereas the car that I saw is a post-facelift example, so I guess the owner bought the badge on Taobao or somewhere second-hand.
The tires are extra wide and extra small, like on a race car, with ninja-weapon-style alloy wheels. There is a fake air vent on the front fender.
It has roof rails, partially green rear lights, and a large rear bumper with integrated exhaust pipe tips. It has a TDI badge on the back. Volkswagen did indeed offer the Toureg with a 3.0 turbodiesel in China. In most Chinese cities, diesel-powered passenger cars were, and still are, strictly forbidden.
But in the 2000s, Volkswagen tried to promote diesel as a clean and low-cost alternative fuel in China. They even produced a diesel-powered Jetta! For a short time, the rules were relaxed and Volkswagen managed to sell a couple of thousand diesel-powered vehicles, including some Toureg 3.0 TDI cars. But they are very rare, and this was the first one that I had ever seen. Power came from a 3.0-liter turbocharged V6 with an output of 240 hp and 550 Nm, mated to an 8-speed automatic. The top speed was 218 km/h.
The license plates are from northeastern Liaoning Province.
Interestingly, the Touareg 3.0 TDI was cheaper in China than petrol-powered Toueregs. This is due to the period import-tariff system, which was based on engine size. The diesel had a 3.0-liter engine, whereas the basic petrol model had a 3.6-liter engine. The base diesel costs 666.000 (yes, triple six) yuan, and the base petrol model 704.600 yuan. The body kit was likely priced at around 20.000 yuan, at most. In the background on the right, is my bicycle, which carried me everywhere around town. It’s still in the family today.